Our growing budget deficit is an enormous threat to our country. A major rating firm has already downgraded our bond rating and another is threatening to do so. The scoundrels in Washington have run up our country's debt to buy votes. This has been a bipartisan effort. If it continues we will end up like Greece.

The only way to stop these politicians is to pass a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. This should be a straightforward amendment that does not specify how the budget is to be balanced. It should not contain any language pertaining to taxes, entitlements, etc. I would suggest that it phase in over a 10-year period.

During that time, the budget deficit from the previous year must be reduced by at least one-tenth the amount of the budget deficit the year the amendment was ratified.

Congress should be allowed to suspend it for a year, but this should require an overwhelming roll call vote: I would suggest 75 percent of both houses. I urge you to ask your congressional candidates whether he would support a no-strings balanced-budget amendment. If the answer is "no," find someone who will support it. The country's future is at stake.

Frank Petranka

Stafford